SEAArch - The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog

Is Angkor in danger of sinking, or isn’t it? The consensus among the scientific community is that the strain on underground water resources is unacceptably high, but the Cambodian government is saying, “not just yet”.

photo credit: anaru

Heritage site in peril: Angkor Wat is falling down
The Independent, 14 March 2008
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It seems blindingly obvious now, but the idea that Cambodia’s shining jewel, Angkor Wat is a popular tourist destination overlooks the fact that this “idea” is only of recent construction.

photo credit: nnice

Selling the largest Hindu temple in the world
The Times of India, 02 March 2008
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How has tourism changed Siem Reap, the gateway to the temples of Angkor and what is the way forward? Maya Hvistendahl of WorldChanging.com offers an insight and overview.

Making Angkor’s Tourism Sustainable
WorldChanging, 14 January 2008
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17 June 06 (Viet Nam News) - A hidden complex of tombs from the Tran-Le Dynasty in the 13th century will be open to public in a bid to develop regional tourism. The tombs were hidden in caves on a sheer rock face, effectively cutting them from human access. While the development plans will include the building of roads and other tourist amenities to make the cave more accessible, there is also the tantalising prospect of other similar mortuary caves hidden in the region.

13th-century tomb to be open to public

Deep inside the relatively modest Pha Hang Mountain in the province of Thanh Hoa rests a treasure trove of coffins dating back to the 13th century.

The remarkable finds, about 160km from Ha Noi, have remained off limits to the public since their discovery a decade ago.

But now, provincial officials are opening the doors to the Tran-Le dynasties cemetery as part of VND22 billion programme to open the region to tourism.

While Pha Hang is far from grandiose, it’s sheer rock face has for centuries hid the bounty within.

That all changed in 1997 when a local villager ambled into the cave while searching for a runaway goat. What he found amazed archaeologists.

The 10m-high and 30m-deep cave was divided into three sections, like an ancient house, said Nguyen Gia Doi from the Archaeology Institute of Viet Nam. Two big doors let the air and sun into the cave, helping dry out the area.

There are more than 100 wooden coffins in all, ranging in size from large to small and containing the bodies of children and adults. Whittled from tree trunks, they line the walls of the cave, balanced on shelves carved into the rock. It is considered the largest cemetery of its kind in the country.

Doi, who has spent 10 years studying the find, believes the remains likely belong to members of the Thai ethnic minority who have lived in the area for thousands of years.

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Read more about the mortuary caves in Thanh Hoa Province.

09 June 2007 (New York Times) - A feature about John McDermott, an American photographer who specialises in taking surreal photographs of Angkor. The black-and-white photography of Angkor is really good, but more telling is his quote about how tourism will -and is- changing the face of Angkor.

Capturing Angkor Before Tourism Works Its Changes

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A 52-year-old photographer from Little Rock, Ark., Mr. McDermott may be the Ansel Adams of Angkor. In the last decade, his photographs have almost become the definitive images of the temples. His pictures — the silhouette of a stone lion at sunset, monks resting on a windowsill, apsara dancers primping before a performance — are not just beautiful but iconic.

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Another eureka moment came five years later, when he returned to Angkor for an exhibition of his photographs at the Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap, the town that serves as a base for exploring the temples. The new luxury hotel was, to McDermott’s surprise, full of tourists. “I recognized two things,” he said. “One, that the tourism industry had just had the fuse lit for Angkor” and two, that the magical-looking temples were going to change from the tourist onslaught.

Sensing that time was of the essence, he returned on his own several months later to “get as comprehensive a portrait of Angkor as I could,” he said. “I wanted them to look as if they’d been taken 300 years ago, 500 years ago, or yesterday — or tomorrow.”

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Read the feature about John McDermott and his photographs of Angkor.

Books about Angkor:
- Angkor Cities and Temples by C. Jaques
- Ancient Angkor (River Book Guides) by C. Jaques
- The Treasures of Angkor: Cultural Travel Guide (Rizzoli Art Guide) by M. Albanese
- Angkor: Cambodia’s Wondrous Khmer Temples, Fifth Edition by D. Rooney and P. Danford
- Angkor: A Tour of the Monuments by T. Zephir and L. Invernizzi